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1914.JOSEPH SELLWOOD SUMMONED; WAS ONE OF PIONEERS OF DULUTH AND MESABA RANGELast Call Comes to One of St. Louis County’s Best Respected Citizens.Name Closely Associated With Development of the Minnesota Iron Country.Miner. Banker, PMlanthropist, Well Known and Had Many Friends in Virginia.Capt. Joseph Sellwood is dead.After an illness which began last Christinas, when he was suddenly taken ill with a cold, Capt. Sellwood, pioneer capitalist, mine owner and banker and one of the most prominent business men of the northwest, passed away at 1:36 o’clock Thursday afternoon of Brights disease at the family residence, 1802 east Superior street, Duluth. He had been in rather poor health for the last, two or three years, but his condidion was not considered serious until this winter.During his illness, Capt. Sellwood was attended by the family physician, Dr. Charles L. Codding. At his bedside when death came this afternoon were Mrs. Sellwood, his two daughters, Mrs. Charles L. Mershon and Mrs. L. W. Leithhead, and son Richard M. Sellwood.Miner at Age of 9.Joseph Sellwood was one of the last of the old crowd, the captains of the mines of the early days of the Upper Peninsula. Born at Cornwall, Eng., Dec. 5, 1846, the son of Richard and Elizabeth Carter Sellwood, the boy “Joe” began his miner’s life at the age of 9. holding drills in the east Pool tin mine. Hammer and iron drills were the implements in those days instead of the automatic tools now in use. And skilled must be the miner to swing his hammer in any position. When he was but 14 years old he was earning the wages of an adult miner, a sum amounting to about £4 sterling a month, and for nearly five years he continued to do as his people had done before him. He came to the United States and at once went into mining. “For the same reason that everyone else does—the prospects of more money.” Certainly he found the prospect but not entirely an illusion. The apprentice boy in the Cornish mines, working his way through the successive stages, became mining contractor, manager, bank president and financier, until he stood among the foremost business men of Minnesota.When he landed in America without friends or relatives, the young miner went to work in the Mount Hope iron mines in New Jersey. He remained there less than three months. In August 1866 he came to Michigan and secured work at the old Ogema mine, now a part of the Maas mine, in Ontonagon county. Until Aug. 1, 1870, he remained in the Copper country, most of the last year at Calumet. Then he took a step that shaped his whole future career. Hetransferred his sphere of action from the copper mines to the iron range.Began Contract Mining.The old New York Mining company, operating then at Ishpeming on the Marquette range, employed him, but it was not long before he began contracting to mine ore by the ton, hiring his own men. Beginning wtih a part of the old New York mine, his contracts grew until they embraced most of the mining at the New York and Cleveland mines. These properties were controlled at that time by Samuel J. Tilden and the Cleveland Iron company, but now the Cleveland mine is being operated hy the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron company. These were days of long working hours underground for Mr. Sellwood, and days when it required courage and unfailing preseverance to work out successfully the contracts undertaken. It was here that his great ability to mine at a low cost, a characteristic that afterwards became almost synonymous with his name, first became apparent. There were times when necessity compelled working with narrow margins, and if they were hard times, they were doubly hard on the man who bore the burden of responsibility in addition to his hours of labor. Outside of his mining work, Mr. Sellwood found time to establish a general store at Ishpeming, which still operates under the name, “Joseph Sellwood Co., under the management of his brother-in-law.It was about this time that the Penokee-Gogebic district began to be explored, and in 1885 the firm of Mather, Morse Co., in which the chief interests were those of Samuel Mather, J. C. Morse and James Pick-ands, sent Mr. Sellwood to open the Colby mine, the first on the new range and where the town of Besse-men has since been built. The property at that time included the present Colby mine operated by Corrigan, McKinney Co., and a part of the Tilden now controlled by the Steel corporation. The open pit and old wooden head-frame of the inclined shaft still remain to mark where the first ore was taken out It was here, too, that a steam shovel was first used in handling ore. A stockpile of considerable tonnage had been piled at the mine, and for a variety of reasons at just that time could only be moved on condition that the cost of handling be kept below a certain small maximum sum, which to the owners, seemed impossible of attainment “If you will get me a steam shovel,” said Mr. Sellwood, “I’ll put that ore on the cars so cheaply it will surprise you. And the shovel was bought, the ore was moved and the cost of loading was a few cents a ton.Opened the Brotherton Mine.In the same year that he came to the Gogebic range, Mr. Sellwood opened the Brotherton mine for Pick-ands, Mather Co., who sold the mine in 1886. Mr. Sellwood then organized the Brotherton Mining company, in which he acquired a one-fourth interest, becoming president of the company. This ownership continued until the sale of the property to theLackawanna Steel company. In company with the Brotherton, the Lackawanna Steel company bought the Sunday Lake mine adjoining. This mine was opened about the same time as the Brotherton for Ferd. Schle-singer, passed into the hands of Corrigan, McKinney Co., and was finally abandoned as an unprofitable proposition. Mr. Sellwood obtained a lease on the Sunday Lake which brought the mine into the same control as the Brotherton, and the property is still being operated, and is noted for its good ore.While operating the Colby, which he continued to do for three and one-half years until the expiration of the sub-lease on which it was held, Mr. Sellwood made a trip to Minnesota. This was in 1886. At that time, Mor-tin and William Pattison, lumber men and residents of Superior, Wis., owned the land where the Chandler mine is now located on the Vermilion range. Ore was discovered on the property by James Sheridan, to whom was given a lease. In 1886, Mr. Sellwood bought for the Chicago Minnesota Ore company, a three-fourths interest in the lease for $20,000, and opened the Chandler mine, dividing his tiniS between the Vermilion and Gogebic ranges. The Chandler mine shipped over 9,000,000 tons of ore that averaged 64 per cent in iron, and about 0.042 per cent in phosphorus. What part the ore mines have played in the profits of the iron and steel trade is amply illustrated here when one recalls the purchase price.Secured Mesaba Properties.The Chicago Minnesota Ore company was associated with the Minnesota Iron company, and was absorbed in the formation of the Federal Steel company. It was through this connection that the property came into the hands of the United States Steel corporation. Working for the Minnesota Iron company, Capt. Sellwood remained at the Chandler until November, 1892, when he set out. to pick up Mesaba range properties for this company, of which he was made vice president. These, too, were busy days. “My wife,” said Mr. Sellwood one day, “once asked me, ‘Why don’t you take it easier and rest a little?’ and I used to tell her that ‘the only sure way for a man to avoid having his employers drive him is to drive himself so hard he is always ahead of them.’ ” As a result of his explorations the Minnesota Iron company bought the Norman, Fayal, Auburn, Genoa, Iron Chief, Moose, Canton and Cloquet mines, all of which are now held by the Steel corporation.In 1898 John W. Gates asked Mr. Sellwood to look after the ore interests of the American Steel Wire company, and he left the Minnesota Iron company in that year to do so. He obtained for Gates the Sauntry, Alpena, Clark and Chisholm mines on the Mesaba range, the Atlantic on the Gogebic range, the Moore on the Marquette range, and the Cuff mine on the Menominee. In addition, he looked after the operation of the Ne-gaunee mine at Negaunee, on the Marquette range, which the American Steel Wire company already owned. All of these mines the Steel corporation also came into possession of, with the exception of the Negaunee, which is now owned one-half by the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron company and one-half by the Lackawanna Steel company.Got Mines for Independents.When the United States Steel corporation was formed, Capt. Sellwood left the employ of the American Steel Wire company, in order to pick up the Mesaba range properties for himself and the independent interests with which he was associated, including Pickards, Mather Co., the Cherry Valley Iron company, the Wheeling Steel Iron company, and the Salem Iron Steel company. Beside a number of unnamed forties of land to which he acquired title for himself or one of the above companies, he obtained control of the Longyear, Lee-tonia, Croxton, LaRue, Cyprus, Adriatic, Pearce, Morrow and Cass mines. Of these, the Longyear and Leetonia were taken over by the Interstate Iron company, the mining organization of the Jones Laughlin Steel company, the Croxton and LaRue went to the Cherry Valley Iron company, and later to the Pittsburgh Iron Ore e pany, and Pearce was obtained by the Meriden Iron company, an independent mining company of which O. B. Warren was the mining manager. Equal interests were held by Pick-ands, Mather Co. and Capt. Sellwood in the Cyprus and Adriatic.Though quite content at this t to add no further responsibilities to those he already had Capt. Sellwood was prevailed upon to take charge of the mines of the International Harvester company at Hawkins and Ag-new on the Mesaba range, and the Illinois in Wisconsin. He reserved, however, the right to look after his own interests to whatever extent they might require, and something of the character of the man is shown in this frank understanding regarding the division of his interests. For years he visited these properties regularly, going about the range in all weather, frequently driving seventeen miles from Hibbing to the Hawkins mine and back and accepting the somewhat limited comforts of a night’s stay on the range with the same matter-of-fact naturalness that characterized him in everything.His Banking Interests.The business interests of Mr. Sellwood aside from mining, became a large part of his daily responsibilities. He inaugurated the City National Bank of Duluth in 1903 and was made the president in 1905, remaining in that position until his death. He was the owner of the First National Bank of Ely, Minn., and the First National bank of Two Harbors, Minn., and • also the controlling factor in the First National bank of Bessemer, Mich. A few years ago he erected the magnificent Sellwood building on the corned of Superior street and Second avenue west, in which the City National bank occupies one of the most modern banking quarters in the United States. He was also a heavy invester in the ore carrying lake trade. He built steamer Joe S. Morrow, naming it after his young grandson, and in his own honor, the steamer Joseph Sell- | wood of the fleet of Mitchell Co. j was named.For many years Mr. Sellwood took active part in politics. This was in the days of the Minnesota Iron company, of which Mr. Sellwood was the political representative in addition to his other duties. The Minnesota Iron company was the dictator of the Republican party in St. Louis county, and Mr. Sellwood made and unmade legislative representatives and county officers. When the Minnesota company was absorbed by the Federal Steel company and later became part of the United States Steel corporation, the political side of the organization disappeared. Mr. Sellwood, however, did not lose his interest in politics, although he ceased to be active personally. He was a Republican.Mr. Sellwood was twice married. His first wife, who died a number of years ago, was Ophelia Mathews of Ontonagon, Mich., whom he married in 1867. They had six children, of whom three are living, Richard M. Sellwood, Mrs. L. W. Leithhead and Mrs. C. E. Mershon. His second wife was Mrs. Martha Triggs, who survives him. He also leaves an adopted son, Joseph Sellwood, Jr.Until the illness which ended in his death, Mr. Sellwood had not known sickness, and accustomed though he had been for many years to work eighteen hours out of every twenty-four, there was no sign of nervous or physical strain. He was ever the active, stalwart, business man of affairs, and he could be found any work day of the year at his office at the bank in Duluth of which he was president, or upon the range personally supervising the mining work at properties under his charge. This review of Mr. Sellwood's career and achievements may be fittingly closed with the following tribute paid to him several years ago by the Iron Trade News of Cleveland:
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The Virginia Enterprise
Virginia, Minnesota, US
Fri, Feb 27, 1914
Page 6
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